Vernon Wells makes screen villains seem dangerously eager, with enough theatrical humour to keep them entertaining. We rate him most when a director gives that physical commitment something precise to do, as George Miller does in Mad Max 2.
Fi1m perspective
The mohawk identifies Wez in Mad Max 2 (1981), but Wells's physical commitment is what makes him threatening. He plays the marauder pursuing Mel Gibson's Max with a ferocity that gives George Miller's precisely staged vehicle combat a recognisable human danger. We were frightened by Wez because his pursuit feels relentless, even when the action around him is so carefully organised. Miller gives less attention to the people than to the machinery, and Wells's expressive face has to do much of the work. This remains the place to start with him: a performance that suits a film with little time for explanation.
Commando (1985) gives him a different task as Bennett, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger's awkward, oddly endearing presence. Here the hint of humour in Wells's menace has more room, fitting a film whose violence is cheerfully excessive. He makes a useful opponent for Schwarzenegger because he commits to the confrontation without treating the material as a joke. The writing is conspicuously thin, and a forceful antagonist can only compensate for so much. We recommend it for an evening of action, not for a closer acquaintance with the people causing the damage.
Wez was his first major screen part, and the Hollywood work that followed in 1985 soon found a comic use for that image. In John Hughes's Weird Science (1985), Lord General is a parody of the earlier marauder. Innerspace (1987) offers a useful contrast in the largely silent Mr Igoe, a part that relies on physical presence rather than talk. Those are two sensible ways of using an actor whose face can express menace and whose theatricality can also be funny.
The later career extends through independent action and genre films, with Ransik in Power Rangers Time Force (2001) taking his antagonist work into children's television. His reputation remains tied to the early roles, and we would not mistake their familiarity for a verdict on everything that followed. A director who expects the casting alone to do the work is asking too much of him. Begin with Miller; save Bennett for an evening when subtlety is not a requirement.
Biography
Vernon George Wells is an Australian character actor. Born on 31 December 1945 in Rushworth, Victoria, he began appearing on Australian television in the mid-1970s in series including Homicide, Matlock Police and All the Rivers Run. His first cinema role was a minor part in Felicity (1979).
Wells is best known internationally for his role as Wez in the 1981 film Mad Max 2. He subsequently appeared in Hollywood productions such as Commando (1985) as Bennett, Weird Science (1985) as the Lord General and Innerspace (1987) as Mr Igoe. In the 2000s he portrayed the villain Ransik in the television series Power Rangers Time Force.
